A recent state audit of six cities’ parking structures revealed that Ithaca does not perform regular structural inspections of its Seneca and Green Street garages.

Instead, Ithaca’s Engineering Department conducted inspections of the public structures on an “as-needed” basis.

Because of the lack of documented inspections by the city, “officials may not be aware of all potential issues, increasing the risk to public safety,” according to the report from the state Comptroller's Office.

The report comes as the state is proposing rules to require the inspection of parking garages across the state. The legislature had passed inspection requirements after the collapse of a hospital's parking garage in Binghamton in 2015. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed the legislation, saying it should not be a law but written into state regulations.

In Ithaca, inspections take place only after a parking maintenance staff member reports a concern – such as cracking beams or deteriorating concrete, according to Tim Logue, the city's director of engineering services. The Department would then send an engineer to inspect the reported area.

In addition, Logue said the city engineers would walk through the garages to inspect the entirety of the structures “on a somewhat regular basis.”

The inspections were not formalized. There was no written checklist of areas to inspect, or established schedule to keep the inspections consistent.

As the audit noted, Ithaca city employees conducted the inspections themselves, rather than hiring outside, independent engineers.

This practice – which Logue said has been in place for a “long, long time” – helps the city to keep the cost of maintaining the garages down.

Ithaca City Controller Steve Thayer said the audit was “interesting” because it compares Ithaca’s parking garage inspection practices to larger cities with more resources: Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo and White Plains. Logue said he is unsure why Ithaca was chosen for the audit.

Logue said the Engineering Department is making some changes to reflect the audit’s recommendations: the city has established an annual inspection to be completed following a checklist to ensure every area of the buildings’ structure is addressed yearly. If engineers take note of an issue that will require repairs, they will contract with an outside professional structural engineer to take a second look and inform the repairs.

Logue said that although he appreciates the audit, he doesn’t think it “exposed anything that was problematic.”

“It looks like it’s saying, ‘The city wasn’t looking at their garages terribly well,’” Logue said. “But we said we disagree. We think we’ve spent plenty of time looking at the garages.

We didn’t have a formal policy until after the report…. We were just doing it.”

Because there is little documentation or standard inspections, the audit report said Green and Seneca Street garages “possibly” have not had structural inspections within the last 10 years.

Logue said this is not the case. He said there have been walk-through inspections conducted by city engineers, and that there is some documentation of these inspections. But he said such documentation is not centralized or easily available.

When asked to produce such documentation for The Ithaca Journal, Logue said it would require a Freedom of Information Law request. As of Thursday afternoon, the City of Ithaca’s FOIL office has not provided this documentation.

Logue said city engineers are “diligently keeping an eye on [the garages] and we’re doing work as needed to make sure they’re safe.”

And, if at any time the department feels public safety is at risk, Logue said they would close the garages immediately.

A two-level parking structure owned and operated by UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City collapsed in July 2015, with no injuries or deaths but crushing about two dozen cars. The garage was 35 years old at the time. Ithaca's Seneca and Green Street garages are over 40.

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Crews remove cars and debris following the collapsed of a parking garage on July 16, 2015, at UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City.(Photo: ANDREW THAYER / Staff Photo)

Following the 2015 Johnson City collapse, a Press & Sun-Bulletininvestigation found that New York does not have any statewide mandates for parking garage inspections, for both publicly and privately funded sites. Inspections are not required, and no agency exists to ensure garage owners comply with structural engineers’ recommendations.

Bills for statewide parking garage inspection regulations soon followed the 2015 collapse, but to no avail.

Less than a year after the collapse in June 2016, State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-District 123, and State Sen. Tom O'Mara, R-District 58, introduced identical versions of a parking garage inspection bill. They required garages be inspected every five years, and the results of such inspections released to the public after 60 days.

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A firefighter stands where the upper-deck of a parking garage collapsed at UHS Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City on Thursday.(Photo: ANDREW THAYER / Staff Photo)

The Assembly passed Lupardo’s bill unanimously, and when it reached Senate chambers, only one member voted against it. But Cuomo vetoed the bill, saying its drafting hadn't involved the state's Fire Prevention and Building Code Council.

In January 2017, the executive branch has taken on the rule change rather than pass the legislative fix. The Department of State drafted a set of rules on garage inspections – differing from Lupardo’s bill by requiring inspections every three years instead, but not requiring the results be made public – released in September.

These rules are not yet in place, though. What was released by the Department in September was actually, as described by the department's director of communications, Lee Park, a “draft rule in development,” or a “pre-proposal.”

What he said was a normal process in executive changes, Park said the “pre-proposal” was released to the public in September to "allow interested parties to weigh in" and suggest alterations before the official proposal be drafted. According to Park, 13 parties have commented on the pre-proposal since September.

Once the official proposal is made public, a 60-day public comment period will ensue. And more changes can be made after hearing from the public.

Park said he has "no way" of knowing exactly when the process will be complete.